Second Chance
by TheDoublemintTwins11
Summary: After graduating, Luffy is moving away. Zoro and Luffy are in love, but neither of them will admit it. By the time Luffy comes to his senses, he's already leaving. After some "encouraging" words from Sanji, Zoro's not going to just let him go.:ZoLu:


**We are both hopeless romantics, we always have been. If only we could write romance better, we'd do it all the time XD But hey, we do our best. This idea actually came to us from a radio prompt (in which you come up with and develop a story idea in the time that it takes for the song to play)**_**.**_** I don't remember what song it was from, but I do know that it had nothing to do with this story, or romance for that matter. I'm pretty sure I was listening to classic rock at the time XD**

**Second Chance**

**-DMTwins-**

The room that Zoro, Luffy, and Sanji had shared looked strangely empty with all of their possessions packed up and cleared out. The walls—due to the awful wallpaper—hadn't seen the light of day since a few days into their freshman year in college, and neither had the floor. The room looked eerily bare, and the fact that everyone—even Luffy—had been fairly quiet all morning served to make the depressing mood almost tangible.

Everything in the room was spotless, the fridge had been cleared out—Luffy had had a big hand in that—and all their belonging had been packed away. The only thing that remained, in fact, was an old couch that Luffy and Zoro had bought their first week of college. And that, too, would be gone by the end of the day when the movers arrived to take it away to Zoro's new apartment. Of course, he'd gotten a lot of shit from the cook for wanting to keep the old couch, since he had no desire to keep anything else and the cook had a sneaking suspicion why he wanted that _particular_ piece of furniture. Zoro had assured him that it was only because he needed a couch, not because he wanted this one specifically. Sanji had scoffed at that, but left him alone.

After all, they'd finally graduated from college, and it was time to take on the world. Sanji just wasn't interested in picking a fight on the last day that Luffy would be in New York. There would be plenty of time to pick fights with the Marimo later, after Luffy had left.

_This should be one of the best days of my life _Zoro thought, but no matter how many times he repeated it in his mind he couldn't ignore the uneasy knot that had settled in his stomach when he'd woken up that morning.

"Well… I guess I should be going…" Luffy said, effectively tearing Zoro from his thoughts. Zoro just nodded dumbly, not really sure what to say, and Sanji waved, shooting Zoro an expectant look as he exhaled a cloud of smoke into the air. Luffy listlessly returned the wave before grabbing his bags and leaving, promising that he would come back visit some time. The door clicked softly behind him, and Sanji turned to Zoro with an irritated look on his face.

"Oi, stupid Marimo. What the hell do you think you're doing? Why didn't you _tell_ him?" Sanji asked. Zoro glared at him as he felt his cheeks grow warm.

"The hell are you talking about, cook?" He snapped, knowing the answer full and well.

Sanji rolled his eyes, looking utterly exasperated. "It's no secret, dumbass. The only person thick enough to not notice is the one that just walked out the door." He paused, before adding, more quietly, "You should tell him."

Zoro didn't know how to respond, and he really wasn't in the mood for arguing, so he didn't say anything. He just watched through the window as Luffy walked down the street, heading for the subway. Luffy was moving all the way across the country, to California, and Zoro was staying in New York. The chances of them meeting up again anytime soon were slim, and by the time they _did_ see each other again, who knows who Luffy could have met?

"You're not going to just _give up_ on him, are you?" Sanji had turned his back on him, and was walking away, probably to get his own bags from the kitchen. "Tell him, before it's too late." He insisted.

The cook was moving to a smaller apartment, as was Zoro, since neither of them could afford to pay for this one alone, nor could they stand to continue being roommates without Luffy to play peacemaker. Zoro gave the empty room a lingering look before grabbing up his own bags and getting up to leave.

"There's nothing to tell."

With that Zoro walked out the door, slamming it behind him. He wasn't in the mood for arguing, and he certainly wasn't in the mood for Sanji's bitching.

Inside, Sanji winced slightly as the door slammed shut. He frowned at the door, and turned to grab his bags. He couldn't babysit the stupid guy, and he didn't want to deal with Zoro's stubbornness. He scoffed.

"Che, Idiot."

---

Luffy smiled when he caught sight of Usopp on the platform. They had agreed to meet up here, and then Usopp would ride with him to the airport to see him off. After all, they'd been friends a long time, and Usopp didn't really want to see him go, but he certainly wanted to be there to say goodbye when he did.

"Hey Usopp." He said, smiling. Usopp returned the greeting with a sigh.

"I can't believe you're leaving." He replied, to which Luffy simply nodded. Usopp frowned and glanced behind Luffy, looking confused. "Where's Zoro?" He asked. Now it was Luffy's turn to frown.

"I don't know, back at the apartment, I think. Why?" Usopp looked surprised.

"He didn't come to see you off?"

"We said goodbye at the apartment." Luffy replied. Truthfully, Luffy had considered asking Zoro to come along, but he'd never worked up the courage to, and Zoro had never offered, so he'd simply left it at that. They'd parted ways, and that was that.

Luffy shrugged, trying to look indifferent as he stood on the platform waiting for the subway came to a stop. He picked up the bags that he had dropped haphazardly at his feet and, with a final glance over his shoulder, followed the rest of the crowd as they got on. He took a seat right next to the door, pulled his bags into his lap, and turned to look out the window. There was nothing remarkable to see, but then again, he wasn't really looking. As Luffy watched the platform swarming with people he felt increasingly lonely, despite Usopp, who was sitting right next to him. He sensed that Luffy was deep in thought, and decided to not interrupt.

_I'm such an idiot! _Luffy thought to himself, and he closed his eyes to fight the tears he knew would be coming. He had known Zoro for years. Ever since high school, and even through college, he _still _hadn't told Zoro how he felt…

And now that he was moving away, he wasn't sure if he ever would.

Just one more stop, and he would get off, meet up with Ace—who was currently in New York on a business trip—and go to the airport to catch his flight. Then, he'd be gone. The thought made him feel awful, not only because he probably wouldn't get another chance to tell Zoro how he felt, but also because he'd _had _his chance, and he blew it. Luffy pressed his cheek against the window and stared blankly out into the crowd on the platform. After a while his attention was drawn to a small commotion on the platform. Someone was pushing through the crowd, running as fast as they could toward the subway. Luffy's breath caught in his throat when he realized who it was.

The subway began to move forward.

Luffy immediately jumped up out of his seat and, bags in hand, crossed over to the door.

"Oi, Luffy… what are you—" Usopp asked, standing up from his seat.

"I need to get off!" Luffy told the attendant standing by the door. They shook their head and began to explain that he couldn't get off while they were moving.

"I'm sorry sir, but it's dangerous—" she began, attempting to close the doors.

Luffy ignored them and pushed past, forcing the door open again. The attendant panicked when they realized what he was going to do, as did Usopp, but Luffy was too fast for them. He jumped over to the platform, causing everyone in the area to leap back in surprise, and causing even more undignified squeals from concerned citizens.

The subway had been moving a lot faster than Luffy had thought. He stumbled, nearly fell, and he was pretty sure he had lost one of his sandals, but he didn't care, because Zoro had run up along the edge of the platform and was there to catch him. He grabbed the smaller man and kept him from falling forward, pulling him close. Luffy's bags clattered to the ground, but they both ignored it. They were too caught up in the moment to care.

He was just going to say it. He was going to tell him everything and if Zoro didn't fee the same then it wouldn't matter because—

"I love you." Luffy was shocked but the abruptness of it all, but after a moment, he felt the comment sink in and he found himself smiling, almost crying because he was so damn happy. He grabbed a fistful of Zoro's shirt, rested his head on his chest and just breathed, not really knowing what else to do. Zoro smelled nice.

"Y-yeah." He sighed, ignoring everyone else on the platform. He was smiling brighter than he had in a long time. The older man tilted his chin up, wearing a similar expression, one of overwhelming happiness and relief. He leaned forward, and Luffy smiled and leaned forward to capture his lips in a brief kiss.

The younger laughed, both in happiness and at all the attention they were getting. Zoro noticed it too, but neither of them cared, as they both went in for a longer, more passionate kiss. Luffy rested his head on Zoro's chest once more, sighing contently. And they would have stayed this way, with Zoro's arms wrapped protectively around him if Luffy's cell phone hadn't started ringing. Not wanting to move, Luffy reluctantly fished it out of his pocket and flipped it open. As he did so, Zoro leaned forward to grab his bags.

"Hello?"

"You're an ass." Luffy smirked at the familiar voice. "Here I am, sitting on a subway, heading to the airport to see you off on a flight that you _won't be taking _because you chose _now_ of all freakin' times to grow some brains and—"

"Usopp?" Luffy cut in.

"What?" He snapped.

"Would you tell Ace that I'm staying in New York?"

"Yeah, screw you!" he barked, almost laughing, before pausing and adding: "Fine... And you're buying me dinner."

"Sounds fair." Luffy hummed.

"Damn straight! This is an hour long ride, you _owe me._" Luffy laughed and hung up on his seething friend, turning to meet Zoro's curious gaze.

"What'd he say?" He asked.

"He said you're buying us dinner… at the Baratie." Luffy replied before finding and donning his missing sandal and grabbing Zoro's hand. Zoro smiled and kissed him on the temple, leading the way.

"Somehow I doubt that."

**So yeah, the more I look this over, the more I think "Huh, I could probably continue this, and I bet it would be really cute—" XD Yes well, we'll just have to wait and see, huh? And if I don't completely fail at life we may have another multi-chapter on our hands. If you do want to see this continued, feel free to give us ideas on where you would like it to go (o3o) Until then, Read and Review, please! :D**


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